Category: Automotive

A long time ago, in what seems like a world far, far away, I wrote about buying a Pontiac GTO. The fact that Pontiac Motor Division has been dead for almost eight years should be testament enough to exactly how long ago that was. Since then a lot has changed: we went from nobody being able to believe that George W. Bush was president then, to today when nobody can believe that Donald Trump was just elected to the same office. When you combine that with all of the extreme folks from either side of the political spectrum all vowing to end each other, it's not hard to imagine that I'm feeling pretty certain that the world has gone completely friggin' nuts, and there may be no turning back.
So in the spirit of gettin' while the gettin's good, I'm buying another car. Because in the face of so much patent insanity, a machine purpose-built for giving you exclusive control over going wherever you damn well please, sounds like precisely the antidote I need.

I live for small details, the finishing touches we put on things after everything else is just so. Like the cherry on the top of a masterfully-engineered ice cream sundae, our new Dodge Charger needed an equally polished -- and equally red -- finishing touch. I found just the thing...

For the three days preceding January 30th, I didn't get to sleep until 2 a.m. and was barely able to concentrate on anything except Car Matters. So when that day finally dawned and I got up ready to spend the entire day car shopping, I was bound and determined to get a right proper deal for the perfect car. All I had to do was select that car. In the end, that car was Charger Three.

Today I completed what has to have been the easiest vehicle sale I have ever undergone. Okay, okay: let me temper that by admitting that it’s only the second car that I’ve ever sold on the private market. But you could hardly ask for a more ideal situation: a buyer who dropped virtually into my lap, paid close to my asking price and was great to work with throughout the entire transaction.

Well, that came together sooner than I expected. Just days after posting that we might have a buyer for Mrs. Oddball’s Mazda6, I now have a verbal agreement and will probably have the money in hand come Monday. As I mentioned in my last post, the buyer is a coworker of mine who recently moved here from outside the U.S.

Nobody is reviving the American muscle car better than Dodge, who has apparently gone all-in with the idea of producing unapologetically aggressive stuff. With “in your face” styling borrowed from Pontiac’s operating manual, plus not one but three big-engined sports/muscle machines on offer, Dodge since 2009 has swiftly stepped in to fill the “driving excitement” void left by Pontiac.

There have been an unusual number of changes around here lately. Some of them even affect situations that have remained static for so long that I’d begun to doubt their ability to change at all. They’ve all brought with them a scent of opportunity on the wind, a feeling that now is the time to be bold and to make a grab for something that always seemed just out of reach.

Oh, faithful GTO. For what do your initials stand? Ay; for thou would have me believe your name is “Gran Turismo Omologato”, I suspect truly that thy moniker be “Gets Troubled Often.” Or perhaps it is I to whom that nomenclature refers?

The weekend isn’t even halfway over, and already I’ve achieved two significant project successes — or at least, I hope I have. (One of them has yet to be proven out). Since at least one of these has been something I’ve tried to achieve for a long time without any success, I thought I’d post how I got it done in case it helps others.